Work Text:
Monday, 4:08 pm.
The weather today was cloudy, light rain had started not too long ago. To say it matched the occasion perfectly wasnt very far-fetched. As today, was Bassie’s funeral.
✿
Everyone had dispersed after her burial.
Some were talking to each other, while others sat alone. Everyone was still processing her sudden death.
But it hit harder to her family members. Her father along with her younger sister stared blanky at the her tombstone. Her mother’s eyes were red and puffy from crying, which had stopped because of her younger brother comforting.
Bassie’s closer friends were huddled together. None of them really saying anything.
Among them, Shelly, was crying. Her tears were dripping onto her and Cosmo’s clothes, who was hugging the girl as an attempt to console her. Vee sat near them, her expression being a mix of sadness and anger of their friend’s departure. Astro and Dandy were taking a walk, mostly to take a break from their wandering thoughts. Flyte was talking with his sister, Flutter, not too far away from the group’s spot. Gourdy was crying and hugging his mother, unable to accept that he could no longer meet his friend.
All of them were expressing their grief in different ways.
✿
Sprout was still recollecting his thoughts and feelings. Her death had brought an emptiness inside him that he could not describe. And he didn’t like the feeling of whatever it was.
Glancing over to his friends, most of them were sitting in silence. The only noise being that of Shelly’s cries in sadness.
Sprout decided he wanted to take a walk. The park didn’t exactly have the best view, but it was enough to keep his mind occupied.
As he passed other guests, some he knew and were acquainted with, others he didn’t and gave a polite “hello” to each of them, he found himself talking to Cocoa, Bassie’s bestfriend.
She talked about the cause of Bassie’s death being the Hanahaki disease. An illness that caused the person affected to cough out flowers petals growing in their lungs, the reason it actually happened to people was still unknown and it had no way of being cured. Meaning, it was usually fatal.
“Usually” because sometimes, the disease would go away on its own. No doctor or specialist had found out why.
As he was just about to leave, Cocoa gave him a letter. She said that Bassie had asked her to give these letters out to the people she wrote them to when the time was right. At the time, Cocoa thought Bassie was being weirdly sad about things but still kept her promise, as she didn’t know her friend was infected with a life ending disease.
Thinking about it, no one actually knew Bassie had the Hanahaki disease. Not even her parents.
She must’ve hidden it from everyone to avoid alarming them. He couldn’t imagine the type of pain she went through, but it had to have hurt really bad.
As the clock struck 6:00 pm, everyone had started to say their goodbyes, including Sprout.
Before leaving, he decided to check up on each of his friends. Shelly was sleeping inside someone’s car(presumably her partner’s, Cosmo) alongside Cosmo accompanying her,
Vee had already left, Astro was sitting on one of the park benches, Dandy was talking with the other guest and Gourdy, Sprout’s little cousin, was eating ice cream that his parents had bought to stop him from crying any longer.
Seeing that most of them were “okay” to say the least, Sprout got into his car and started driving. His mind unable to think of anything else but return back to his apartment.
✿
Sprout couldn’t sleep, not after today’s events.
No matter how hard he tried, tossing and turning on the bed, his eyes just couldn’t seem to close. And as a way to torture him, his mind was stuck thinking about Bassie. Everytime he tried to think about something else, it always lead him back to her. It wasn’t really helping him go to sleep.
Looking at the clock on the wall, it was exactly 12:34 am, a time where he should be asleep by now. Sprout wondered if there was anything that could even remotely help him fall asleep.
That’s when he remembered it, the letter Cocoa had given him.
Pulling it out of drawer, when he first got home, he had decided to read it later as he wasnt ready to open it. And now was probably an appropriate time.
Looking at the envelope, it was stamped using one of those wax stamps with a flower pattern on it. Not to mention, it practically smelled like lavender all over.
It’s ironic how Bassie had loved flowers so much and how it was the cause of her death.
Preparing himself mentally, Sprout was curious as to what Bassie had wrote in her letter for him.
“My dear Sprout,” the letter started.
“by the time you are reading this, it is probably our 5th year anniversary of knowing, and befriending one another.”
“And presumably, i must have already departed from this world.”
…
“Honestly, when my doctor told me i had this disease, i felt… “
“empty”
“I was sad, it’s just- i didnt know what to do or how to react.”
“It was then i decided to live my life without any doubts,”
“which led me to writing letters to everyone that was precious to me.”
“Yes, that included you.”
It was weird.
Sprout had known Bassie for what could be considering as a long time, and yet, he’d never seen her talk, or for this instance, write, in such a melancholic way.
“I planned to do so many things in life.”
“But as that was being taken away from me,”
“I realised that i should probably do the things that i still had time for”
“like spending time with the people i loved the most.”
…
“And so, this letter is a confession of my true, honest feelings”
“because i was too scared to do it infront of you, in real life.”
Sprout knew Bassie lacked a little confidence in herself, but he never thought she was truly afraid of speaking her mind with him. After all, weren’t they close friends?
“I’ll be quick and blunt with this,”
“I like you, Sprout.”
The letter read out.
Sprout was… shocked to say the least. His hands were shaking upon realisation.
“If only she had told me…” a quiet whisper in his mind. Maybe then, he would’ve accepted her confession.
He continued to read despite feeling a lump in his throat.
“I dont know when i started to, but i surely don’t regret it”
“I liked the time we spent together,”
“On days you weren’t there,”
“my chest seemed to ache and hurt alot more than usual.”
”And on days we did meet, the pain became considerably more lighter.”
“What im trying to say is:”
“Even if you never accept my feelings,”
“I’ll always love you.”
“Even in death”
Sprout could feel tears well up in his eyes.
“Thank you, Sprout.”
“For giving me something to care about other than flowers.”
“For showing me how kindness blossoms”
“even in the darkest times”
“you’ll always be”
“my one and only,”
“precious,”
“light.”
The writing on the letter came to an end.
He was crying now.
The tears that fell showed how much he had hidden from himself.
These warm feelings that he hid, were a cry for something he wanted.
Something that he could no longer have.
Her.
“I love you too” he whispered his only, and last words for her.
Not all stories have happy endings for the characters dont they?